Risk Assessment
Bites and disease
There is very little malaria in Malaysia. Only at a few remote jungle locations. There are very few mosquitoes on the island and no malaria. Almost no residents and only a few tourists take anti Malarials.
On the island, there are no snakes & we have never seen a scorpion. The centipedes do bite and it hurts but not life threatening.
On the island, there are no snakes & we have never seen a scorpion. The centipedes do bite and it hurts but not life threatening.
The red ants do bite, but only if you disturb their nests which are normally in the forest.
In the ocean there are jelly fish occasionally, and very infrequently some people get stung. We do not have dangerous Jellyfish.
There are stonefish & lion fish on the seabed. They are not aggressive and you would be very unlucky to be stung.
We also have a very few skates and rays, while they can sting they are not aggressive and it is very rare to get close to them.
Terrorism & Kidnap
Pom Pom has fantastic diving & snorkelling. There are few risks and the island is very safe.
The kidnapping threat is very over rated. There has not been any terrorist activity in the region for many years (Since 2001). The Philippine Muslim groups have been very quiet. There is a police station on every island and regular sea patrols. The Malaysian government takes security very seriously. We get inspected by police almost every time when we travel to non tourist dive sites. All the dive resorts on Mabul, Kapali, Mataking and Pom Pom are operating normally. There are upwards of 15 dive operators & resorts with 450-700 divers in the area every day. There are 120 permits to dive on Sipadan every day and there is a huge waiting list. There are a lot of people in the region who think the terrorist threat is very minor.
Where TRACC operates the resort is full with visitors from all over the world about half of every month. We are next to the small 3 star resort on Pom Pom Island. the larger resort on this island and the next one – Mataking both like to think they are 5 star, they charge a lot more. We are also 50km from Sipadan so are unlikely to be a target. TRACC normally has 3-10 volunteers from lots of different countries. The TRACC camp is also hidden and access is limited, most people who walk along the beach do not realise that our camp exisits.
There is no risk of car accidents and realistically there is more chance of mugging, kidnapping or terrorism in any western capital.
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http://www.naturemalaysia.com/snakes.htm
thanks for pointing out that the way our text read there were no snakes in Malaysia. There are no snakes on pom pom island where the project is located.